I just corrupted 2 of my boyscout families. ( chicken math is next!)

[HeatherLynn]

So I bought my poultry magazines to the scout meeting tonight. By the end of it I had one dad looking for plans to build a backyard coop. Another who has a coop but got rid of the chickens ( he had game hens given to them and did not enjoy them) looking at getting some nice Australops. Thats right the corruption has begun.

I think next week I will introduce the concept of chicken math. hehe I might bring my book on coops too.

 

[easttxchick]

Good for you!
All you need to do is get them started-they'll be no turning back for them then!

 

[PineappleMama]

Animal Science, First Aid To Animals, Vet Medicine, Bird Study, Carpentry (coop), Cinematography (film the chickens), Collections, Cooking, Environmental Science, Farm Mechanics, Gardening (manure usage), Insect Study (worm farm), Pets....

Oh yeah, PLENTY of reasons for Scouts to be interested in chickens.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Can I get my scout to do any of those badges? NO! That would require cleaning up after animals.

 

[dawg53]

Congratulations! The corruption is rampant!

 

[sourland]

There you go start them on the poultry keeping merit badge. Is there a poultry keeping merit badge? Ought to be.

 

[HeatherLynn]

Not sure. Actually I started on the dads first. I will work my way down to the scouts after the dads are addicted. We have some self sufficiency wanna be's so they were easy prey.

 

[Kamelian]

To Heather & Sourland, the Poultry Keeping Merit Badge was discontinued in 1973 or 1974 when its requirements were adjusted and merged into the Animal Science Merit Badge, which now has a section on avian livestock. The 4H program has a big leader's notebook available on poultry - everything you ever wanted to know and then some - that you might be able to borrow and use as a reference manual for boys interested in pursuing the merit badge and more thoroughly learn the information about poultry. Check with the folks at your county extension council to ask about it.

Even though it's pretty well known that being resistant to taking on responsibilites is a typical teenage attribute because of the way their brains develop, Mom's Folly should consider taking a firmer stand on her boy's refusal to follow through to the completion of projects, especially in avoidance of doing the nasty chores that so often go with the fun stuff. Perhaps she ought to inform her Boy Scout that personal responsibility goes along with being a member of the troop, and cleaning up after one's self, one's patrol, one's pets/livestock at home, and even one's family on occasion, is part of learning to be a responsible, contributing adult human being who achieves success later on. A young man who assumes responsibility as a part of the whole project package has a much greater chance of achieving success in school, and in his chosen occupation later on, than one who continually shirks responsibility and assumes someone else will get tired enough of nagging him and go do those things for him.

Please have him re-examine the Scout Oath and the Scout Law, and sit down with him for a discussion. Have him tell you what each part of those primary elements of Scouting means to him, have him put it in his own words and use examples from his own experience to illustrate what he's saying. Sometimes we just have to take these kids aside for a little talk, and threaten to take away all the television, video games, computers, I-pods, and other gadgets of mass-couchpotato-syndrome until they realize they need to follow through and finish what they're supposed to, what they started.

My son, who was also in Scouting, was one who needed prodding. He was told early on when he was about 12, that if he wanted to drive a car, he would have to either make Eagle or turn 18 before I would allow him to obtain his driver's license. He was eligible to get a license at 16, but didn't have the Eagle. He wasn't a very happy camper. So when he finally made Eagle - a month before he turned 18 - I took him to get his driver's license the day after he passed his Eagle Board of Review.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Kamelian....

You sure extrapolated an awful lot about my son's behavior from one short sentence.....

He is twelve, soon to be thirteen. He will have his star scout rank by spring board of review. He only has to complete his 4 months of being patrol leader. My kid is a leader and in scouts because he loves it. I would love for him to be an Eagle scout, but it has to matter to him, not be something he is forced into. I though boy scouting is supposed to be boy lead and boy driven. The fact of the matter is for him, as soon as he hits 14 he will be moving to a venture crew and will earn Eagle as a venture scout.

The poultry are my hobby, why should he be forced into something he doesn't like simply because it is one more merit badge he could do?